
A roundup of the sports information of the week
AUTO RACING—At the Ontario (Calif.) Motor Speedway MARIO ANDRETTI took first in the $288,900 Questor Grand Prix in a V-12 Ferrari (page 70).
Al Unser, taking the lead from his brother Bobby near the end, won the 150-mile Jimmy Bryan USAC race in Phoenix, Ariz. for the second straight year.
BASKETBALL—ABA: Indiana clinched the top spot in the East by beating Denver 146-126 while Utah was losing to New York 133-120. Earlier in the week the Pacers beat Texas in overtime 127-126 as Utah went down before Virginia 130-112. The next night Utah lost again, this time to Pittsburgh 128-120. Both divisions were hotly contested in the fourth position—Florida .012 ahead of Pittsburgh in the East, and Denver and Texas tied in the West. Denver moved back into playoff contention by defeating Texas 120-118 to snap an eight-game losing streak.
NBA: With playoffs underway. New York and Atlanta were tied 1-1, as were Philadelphia and Baltimore. Milwaukee went one up on San Francisco, while Chicago dropped two games to Los Angeles. In the first Knicks-Hawks game Dick Barnett's 17 final-period points were a major factor in New York's 112-101 victory. Bill Bradley had two key rebounds, a steal and a game high of 25 points. Atlanta took the second game 113-104 by controlling the backboards. Bill Bridges grabbed 36 of Atlanta's 80 rebounds; New York had only 39. In the Philadelphia-Baltimore matchup the 76ers took the opener 126-112, sparked by Hal Greer's 30 points. The Bullets lost Earl Monroe who played only 11 minutes after suffering a bruised rib, and Kevin Loughery and Fred Carter fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Next, Baltimore evened the series with a 119-107 victory. Monroe, well-dosed with pain-killer, played 41 minutes and scored 24 points. Milwaukee beat San Francisco 107-96 as Oscar Robertson hit for 31 points and Lew Alcindor 25. Alcindor was out most of the last quarter in foul trouble. Surprise of the week was Los Angeles; playing without Jerry West, it scored 100-99 and 105-95 victories over the Bulls. In the opener rookie Jim McMillian hit 20 points in the second half for a career game high of 26. The second time around he scored 24—a two-game total of 50 for a young man with an 8.4 regular-season average. McMillian also held the Bulls' Chet Walker to 15 and 12. Walker had averaged 22 points per game going into the playoffs.
BOATING—IMPROBABLE, a 43-foot sloop, took the 811-mile Miami-to-Montego Bay yacht race. The winner was skippered by David Allen of the San Francisco Yacht Club in a corrected time of two days, 22 hours, 48 minutes, 19 seconds. Mark Johnson's 73-foot ketch WINDWARD PASSAGE set an elapsed-time record of 3:03:40:07, at one point surfing along at a reported 20 knots.
BOWLING—JOHNNY PETRAGLIA, a lefthander from Brooklyn, scored his third victory of the year in the $60,000 Don Carter Classic in New Orleans, defeating Gary Dickinson of Fort Worth 223-192. Petraglia, the leading money-earner after 12 events, is the first back-to-back tournament winner on the PBA winter tour.
BRIDGE—The world champion DALLAS ACES won the Vanderbilt Cup knockout team championship by 156 international match points, the largest margin ever in a national knockout final. They will defend their world title in Taiwan next month and are now strong favorites to represent the United States in the 1972 world team Olympiad.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL—NORTH CAROLINA became the 34th National Invitational champion, overwhelming Georgia Tech 84-66 in Madison Square Garden. The Tar Heels' 6'6" junior, Bill Chamberlain, scored 34 points and was named Most Valuable Player. In the consolation game St. Bonaventure won in overtime over Duke 92-88.
GOLF—GARY PLAYER won his second straight tour victory by taking the National Airlines Open in Miami with a 14-under-par 274. Defending Champion Lee Trevino was second at 12-under.
HOCKEY—The No. 2 spots in both divisions were clinched last week—by New York in the East and St. Louis in the West. The Rangers got theirs in a 7-2 win over Buffalo, ending a three-game losing streak. Vic Hadfield led the New Yorkers with two goals. For St. Louis it was a 6-3 victory over Los Angeles. Minnesota nailed a playoff berth in the West by beating the Kings 3-1. Boston, having already won the East, loafed to defeats by Buffalo 7-5, Chicago 2-1 (the Black Hawks won that series 3-2-1) and New York 6-3. It was the Rangers' first victory over the Bruins this season and their 19th on the road, a club high. New York scored five goals in the first period, a record for any team against the Bruins this season but nothing to write home about in view of Boston's sleepskating play.
HORSE RACING—Calumet Farm's Kentucky Derby contender EASTERN FLEET ($8.20) won the 1‚⅛-mile Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park by three-quarters of a length over favored Executioner. His time was 1:47[2/5] on a fast track (page 28).
Northfields ($26.40) captured the 1‚⅛-mile $61,000 Louisiana Derby by half a length. List finished second, Will Hays third and favored Helio Rise seventh.
SKIBOBBING—Austria swept the slopes in the women's giant slalom, with GERTRUDE GEBERT, Waltraud Jost and Grete Hois finishing one-two-three, and won two of the three top spots for men in the third annual world championships at Mount Rose, Nev.
SKIING—BRAD KENNISON, a Johnson (Vt.) State sophomore, won the Eastern Slalom Championship on Loon Mountain in New Hampshire, beating Wayne Wright by .8 of a second with a winning time of 96.39 (two runs). JODY PALMER won the women's title in 103.34 over Leslie Orton.
SWIMMING—Indiana collected its fourth straight NCAA championship in Ames, Iowa, followed in the scoring by Southern California, UCLA and Stanford (page 77).
TENNIS—ROSEMARY CASALS defeated Billie Jean King 6-4, 6-4 in the final round of the $15,000 Virginia Slims Invitational tournament in Madison Square Garden—her first victory over Mrs. King in 2½ years, including six final matches on the new women's circuit this season. The victory was worth $5,000, the largest single prize thus far on the tour. MRS. ANN JONES, the British lefthander, beat Fran√ßoise D√ºrr of France 6-2, 6-4 for third place.
WRESTLING—It was win and win again for the Oklahoma State Cowboys en route to their 28th NCAA championship in Auburn, Ala. with 94 points, beating runner-up Iowa State by 28. DARRELL KELLER outmaneuvered Washington's Larry Owings, the defending champion, to win the 142-pound title and was selected outstanding wrestler of the championships by he coaches.
MILEPOSTS—ACQUIRED: JIM BARNETT, previously of the Portland Trail Blazers; by the San Francisco Warriors in exchange for three draft selections.
COACHING CHANGES: JACK GARDNER, after 18 years, was out as basketball coach of the University of Utah Redskins. His teams won one of the nine WAC championships. This year the Utes were 15-11. Out, too, was LOU ROCHELEAU after only a year (and an 8-16 record) at the University of Montana. And JOHN DROMO, who suffered a heart attack earlier this winter, resigned as head basketball coach at the University of Louisville after 3‚Öì seasons and a cumulative record of 68-22.
ELECTED: WILLIAM L. WALL of MacMurray (Ill.) College; as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, succeeding Adolph Rupp of Kentucky.
NAMED: JACK KRAFT, who guided Villanova into the finals of the NCAA basketball tournament; University Division Coach of the Year, by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. BOB DANIELS of Kentucky Wesleyan College was cited in the College Division.
SELECTED: NEW ORLEANS, as the site of the 1972 Super Bowl, by the NFL club owners on the 14th ballot.
SIGNED: JOHNNY NEUMANN, sophomore forward at the University of Mississippi and the nation's leading collegiate scorer, with a 40.1 average; by the Memphis Pros of the ABA.
DIED: GOMER JONES, 57, onetime All-America football center at Ohio State, more recently athletic director and former head football coach at the University of Oklahoma; while in New York for the NIT basketball tournament.